The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1887-07-07

the States of Kentucky and Virginia
and thence runs in almost a direct
line to Johnson City, Tenn, intersect-
ing at that point, 216 miles from Ash
land, the East Tennessee, Virginia
and Georgia Railroad, At Marion, n
c., 81 miles from Johnson City, the
line crosses the Western North Caro-
lima Railroad, and proceeding thence
through Rutherfordton and Shelby,
N, c., intersects the Richmond and
Danville Railroad at Blacks Station,
in South Carolina, 20 miles further
south. At YorkvilIe, 2S miles from
Blacks, the road crosses the Chester
and Lenoir Railroad at Rock Hill, IA
miles from Yorkville, it crosses the
Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta
Railroad and at Camden, 47S miles
from Ashland, ii connects with the
South Carolina Railway, with which
advantageous traffic arrangements
have been made, giving continuous
line from Ashland to the Atlantic
From Camden another branch of
the line passes through Sumter, thirty
three miles further south, and at that
point connects with the Northeastern
Railroad. Ashland is 1877 miles from
Cincinnati and 600 from Charleston.
The distance between Cincinnati and
Charleston by the "Three C's Rail
road" therefore, is 737 miles, as com
pared with 800 miles by the Cincin-
natl Southern, and 9S8 miles by the
Chesapeake and Ohio. At Shelby, N.
c., it should also be mentioned, the
"Three C's" connects with the Carroll
ma Central Railroad for Charlotte and
other points, and by consolidation
with Mitchell's Road, as it is called,
will have a line from Blacks to Ham
burg, S. G. 1t is not improbable that
it will also have direct communication
with Columbia-forming in this way
a railway trident, with one prong at
Charleston, one at Columbia, and one
at Hamburg, on the Savannah River
But the simple statement of the
course of the line, with its terminal
points, tells but little of what the road
ought to be and promises to be. 1t is
not to be constructed for through
or terminal business alone, the calcu.
lation being that the business to be de-
veloped along its route will be ample
to make its independent traffic highly
profitable.
Many columns of The News ano
Courier would be required to present
even bare sketch Of the varied min
eraland agricultural resources of the
country through which the "Three
C's" will pass, and in which it vii
scarcely have competitor iorthe i'm
mense volume of traffic awaiting it,
completion. At distance of abou
thirty miles from Ashland, the roaC
enters the vast coal deposits known al
the "Peach Orchard Mines" Twenty
miles further south it enters terrific
ry containing one OF the largest depos
its of splint or block coal to be founC
in the United States, covering an arei
of many hundreds of square miles
and where, in addition to other varie
ties of bituminous coal, are found in
exhaustible beds CT camel coal, ex
tending nearly to the Virginia line
OF this region Prof N. S. Shaler, O
Harvard University, formerly directo
of the Geological Survey OF Kentucky
re ports that "it is the richest fiel
of mineral "wealth in any country.
Near the boundary line between Ken
lucky and Virginia the road traverse
specular and hematite iron ore bed
and other fields of coal, both mineral
OF excellent quality and in quantitie
that are declared to be practically ir
exhaustible.
Other belts of ore are passed, CON
ing south, before the road reache
=, what is perhaps one OF most valuabl
iron deposits on the Continent. Thi
is the famous Cranberry bed in Mort
Carolina, the ore OF which is pronounC
ed by Prof. n G, Kerr, State geologil
of North Carolina, to be unsurpasse
in quality by any iron in the worl,
while in quantity it has no equal
this country.
The importance of these sever
deposits may be understood, withol
" going into details, from the followin
= statement OF the relative convenienc
and therefore the relative cheapnes
, of handling the ores, as compare
with like oresin other parts OF IL
Uuited States. Mr.. Twank, a speci
n Government expert, says in the Unite
States Census for 1880: From IL
ore mines of Lake Superior and Nj
souri, to the coal OF Pennsylvania